Bangkok – Our Favourite City in Asia? And Some Tips

So yah, Bangkok..I was supposed to write this post back in 2011 sometime I guess haha, I started with 1 picture in October 2011 but it got kinda stuck there.

We really love Bangkok, we’ve been back a couple of times since – but this was our first trip so it was kind of special and it was a surprise birthday trip for Kim as well. I was trying to be more romantic, proactive etc as I was a bit of a bum most of the time haha. Plus she’d mentioned MANY times she wanted to go shopping there, check out Chatuchak etc.

Anyway I decided on Bangkok as I’d heard so many good things about it, we’d both been to Thailand and absolutely loved the food and people there but we’d never really explored Bangkok properly, and definitely not together so I went for it, I booked with AirAsia go and chose a cute boutique-ish hotel bang in the middle of Chinatown called Shanghai Mansion.

Bangkok has a whole bunch of cute and quirky hotels at reasonable prices, so do have a look outside of the chains for something different.

Anyway we arrived safely and checked in, and we were hungry, seen as though it was birthday girls weekend I let her choose what to eat…she chose to eat a whole suckling pig right next to the hotel and it was AWESOME. You can see her post about it here – The suckling pig in Bangkok.

It was a bit different from the style we get here in Malaysia, it was nice but honestly we preferred how they do it here. The cool part was though they stir fried the rest of the meat with salt and pepper, which made a delicious dish to eat with our rice/veges.

We lucked out staying in Chinatown too and discovered one of our absolute favourite restaurants in Bangkok just walking distance from our hotel, more here – T&K Seafood in Bangkok’s Chinatown.

What we really adore about Thailand and especially Bangkok is the street food, it’s EVERYWHERE, it’s cheap, there’s loads of pork and it seems impossible to have a bad meal in Thailand. I mean just look at how amazing their chap fan/mixed rice is:

One thing you fast learn about Bangkok is, stick to taxis if you want to get somewhere in comfort. Taking a tuk tuk is fun, but only do it for that reason. A tuk tuk is not really any cheaper than a taxi (unless you’re perhaps a local), there’s no aircon, if it rains it sucks, if you get stuck behind something spewing diesel fumes it sucks and they will constantly hassle you to make ‘stops’ to help them out.

Every stop you make will reduce your fare by 20-40baht but take about 10-20 minutes each time, it’s worth doing once maybe just for fun. We actually did 3 stops just for shits and giggles and got the tuk tuk ride for free.

But if you want to get anywhere just take a taxi, another important lesson to note – ALWAYS hail a moving cab, never take one parked at the road side (they tend to be the lazy, unscrupulous drivers).

As far as food goes there a few dishes you absolutely must try the authentic versions of in Thailand, one is Pad Kra Pao (or Krapow) which is basically minced pork fried with loads of basil – super delicious. This one was inside Chatuchak market:

The other is of course braised pig leg rice which you can find everywhere and the good ones will simply blow your mind. Talking of Chatuchak, the place is immense and there’s a LOT of people, if I can give you one tip for Chatuchak it is – if you see something you like, just buy it, because the chance of you being able to locate the same stall again is slim to none.

The birthday girl had a great time shopping of course and LOVED Chatuchak market as expected.

The other place we’d heard a lot about was Platinum Mall so we spent a day there to check it out. Talking of stewed pork leg, the one at the Platinum Mall food court is definitely one of the best ones I’ve had, so if you do head there – check it out!

Platinum mall is like a smaller, more comfortable version of Chatuchak with aircon and much easier to navigate. The major downside I noticed was there’s very little mens stuff in Platnium, compared to Chatuchak which also has other interesting sections (home, gardens, pets etc).

But the shopping experience at Platinum is much less sweaty and the food in the food court is tops! But even then, we still headed back to Chatuchak the next day for another go haha, and we managed to locate the legendary coconut ice cream, another memorable food from BKK.